exploratory kidnapping

[alicornucopia]

In this room are two women, one gray and sixty years old, one just thirty and red-haired, both wearing elaborate outfits. The younger casts a spell.

In this room is now also a third person. (On whom the elder woman promptly also casts a spell, which she had at the ready.)

Comments

[missnicegirl]

"I wonder what's wrong with it? Is there a good way to test?"

[alicornucopia]

"Well, we could make an elixir with it and feed it to a mouse, I suppose."

[missnicegirl]

"Poor mouse..."

[alicornucopia]

"It is a little sad, isn't it? But we get our mice from a store that also sells them to be fed to snakes. I think testing elixirs is a nobler occupation," says Raha.

[missnicegirl]

"Well, okay. That makes sense. Okay then."

[alicornucopia]

So (to control for the possibility of introducing more of Matilda's magic into the potion) Raha turns the glowing elixir base into a pep elixir, and fetches a mouse, and feeds the mouse a mouse-sized dose.

[missnicegirl]

The mouse becomes very pepped. Not dangerously so, but in a way that noticeably exceeds the strength of the dose.

[alicornucopia]

"Huh. It seems to have made the elixir stronger. Either that or this is a very peppy mouse. We'll keep an eye on it to see if there are any side effects."

[missnicegirl]

"That's interesting! And it makes a kind of sense, as a side effect of sort of doing the same magic twice on something. I have no explanation for the glow, though. The glow was weird."

[alicornucopia]

"Yes... but the base had the extra magic, not the pep part," says Raha. "I wonder why it made the final potion's effect stronger instead of doing something else?"

[missnicegirl]

"I'm not sure. I wonder if it just... couldn't think of anything better to do? But I'm not sure my magic actually works that way... I'm not sure what sort of a way to work that is."

[alicornucopia]

"Magic here usually doesn't think for itself," muses Raha.

[missnicegirl]

"Mine can learn things. Maybe it sort of knew what things witchcraft does, and making the pep potion stronger was the first thing it could do that was like something witchcraft does and hadn't already been done by real witchcraft?"

[alicornucopia]

"Maybe. I'm trying to think of a potion that is very precisely dosed - it doesn't matter very much for a pep potion, but some things would be worse if they were stronger."

[missnicegirl]

"I have no idea if my magic can learn which things it's appropriate to strengthen," says Matilda. "But now I want to find out!"

[alicornucopia]

"All I'm coming up with are medicines, and those would be a little hard to test on mice when we only have healthy ones."

[missnicegirl]

"Well, there's time to think about it," says Matilda. "I don't think it's very important to find out in a hurry, since I can still do regular witchcraft without any of my magic in it."

[alicornucopia]

"That's true. I'll think about it," agrees Raha.

[missnicegirl]

"This is exciting!" beams Matilda.

[alicornucopia]

"It is!" agrees Raha. "We'll have to think of more experiments and find out how it works."

[missnicegirl]

"It's going to be so much fun!"

[alicornucopia]

And eventually Matilda is sent home. As usual, all wizard spells on her break.

[missnicegirl]

...and yet, she can still see variously coloured glows on things, just as though the analysis was still active.

That's interesting.

She goes and finds Lavender, who turns out to also be glowing, in a different and less excitable mix of colours. She explains some of what's going on. She teaches Lavender some very simple witchcraft. Lavender makes several batches of elixir base using Earth-witchcraft. Matilda can see her do it, just as though the analysis was still active... except that the colours of the analysis weren't quite this clear, didn't have quite so much detail, didn't have the feeling of magic attached that is now becoming very familiar.

Matilda arrives for her next lesson with several batches of Earth-brewed elixir base and some exciting news. "My magic learned your analysis and now it can see itself!"

[alicornucopia]

"That was fast! You only had it on for about an angle!" says Terali. "Is it learning to learn faster?"

[missnicegirl]

"I don't know! Maybe! It's exciting! And I think it's been learning to see itself better since then; I can already tell more things about when Lavender is flying or someone's making potions. I brought some batches of elixir base made on Earth for me and Raha to test."